Hey there! Itsa me!

And no, this isn't another chapter of Confessions, but I might do more... if i can think of any...

Anyhoo, I had been thinking of doing a new story, to get me in the mood to finish the other one (haha, my logic is so flawed, but oh well), and came up with this.

It's much more serious than anything I've ever posted up here, at least for HB, but i wanted to try doing something new.

This is just a sample.

Let me know if you want me to continue it or just scrap it.

It's in Frank's POV, since I'm on a Frank Roll (haha! that sounds funny) and the boys are 17 and 16.

It had started out like a normal day. They always seem to don't they?

We had been wrangled out of bed by our parents and shuffled down the stairs for breakfast.

Joe is hardly ever in a good mood when he wakes up so it had been funny to tease him about his bed head.

My mom had laughed at us and told us to play nice.

My dad had smiled and her and said that boy will be boys. That clichéd phrase I thought I had gotten tired of a long time ago.

What I would give to hear that again.

Nothing felt out of the ordinary. It really had just felt like a normal day.

No cases. No bad guys after our dad or us that we knew of.

Our mom didn't have a business conference out of town.

Aunt Gertrude or Aunt Trudy on one of her better days, had gone up to visit some of their old friends and our parents were going to join them today, but for now we were all together. Happy.

But I guess that's why the greater the height, the harder you fall.

/

We had gone to school, done all the normal things that we would have done on a normal day. It started raining, so our dad told us to take his car while he and mom would head up with Aunt Trudy's bug that she had left behind. That in itself should have set off more alarms in my head, but hey, it was just rain right?

Then I should have started to suspect something when both Joe and I were called to the principal's office, but then that was still part of our so-called normal.

Finally, something started inching up my suspicion nerves when I saw how many people were in the room. The principal, the vice principal, the student counselor, the guidance counselor, that usually can't be a good thing. But I hadn't thought much about it, I had just assumed it was a big problem that the principal wanted Joe and I to fix. Not out of the ordinary.

Joe always likes to remind me how right I always am.

I have never felt so wrong in my life.

/

Which I how I found myself right now, sitting in the chair across from the principal's desk with Joe next to me. Everyone except for the principal was standing. Waiting close by as if to catch us if we fell out of our chairs.

The next few minutes felt like hours as they just stared at us, trying to figure out the words to say.

I didn't realize I had been gripping the arm of the chair until my hand started aching. Joe had started staring at the ground, his eyes were wide and his jaw clenched. In a way, I guess in the back of our minds, we kind of knew.

"Just say it." I had never heard him sound so fierce before. "It's not like the suspense is killing me or anything."

His mouth was turned up in a sarcastic grin, but his eyes were hard and cold.

My mouth felt so dry but I managed to choke out a few words.

"What happened to them?"

The adults looked like they actually got shot and wished someone would shot them at the same time.

Bayport wasn't the biggest place, everyone knew a lot of people, especially the famous Fenton Hardy.

"We're so sorry. But there's been an accident…"

The words hit me harder than anything I've ever felt before.

It was like something out of a bad TV drama. The words were just so…used, but you'd never think it would be said to you.

Even if you live like us, a life filled with so much unknown danger, something like this wasn't unexpected. Luck runs out. I just didn't expect it to so soon.

I felt my heart drop to my stomach, felt it lie on the bottom and start to slowly shrivel into nothingness. My limbs were frozen to the chair. I felt like I was encase in Jell-O and I couldn't move.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Joe's hands begin to shake and his body trembled slightly. His hair had fallen over his eyes, blocking his expression but I knew he was probably feeling the same thing I was.

"…the roads must have been unstable and especially with all the rain… there was a big crash and a couple cars ran off the road and off the cliff. Your parent's car was one of them. They are searching for it now but…"

The sound of chair legs scraping against the floor made me look at Joe who had gotten out of his chair.

His fists were clenched so tightly together that his fingertips were red and his knuckles practically glowed white.

"Excuse me." He mumbled and dashed out of the room.

The counselors looked a bit shocked that he didn't throw a fit and made a move to go after him.

"I got this." I held out my hand, then put it back down when it started to shake uncontrollably. "Thanks for letting us know. We…won't be attending the rest of our classes today…sorry."

I immediately hurried out after my brother who was headed for the car park.

"Joe." I called.

He ignored me and just kept walking forward. I ran up to him and grabbed his arm before he could walk out of the shelter and into the pouring rain.

"Stop." I said and pulled him into an embrace, squeezing him as tightly as I could into me, as if it would make the pain go away."

We stayed like that for a while, the beating rain against the pavement an unsettlingly soothing ambience. I stood in silence, not knowing what to say, not wanting anything to say.

I could feel him trembling under me, or that could have been me. My vision blurred and I wondered if it had always been this hard to breathe.

Joe's hands were still in fists at his sides and his jaw locked forward as he stared at Dad's car getting drenched outside.

"Well…we can join Disney now, Frank." His voice was tight with pain, but it was like he was trying to get me to laugh.

So I did. A little.

"Don't kid yourself." I tried to play along. "You aren't that great of a dancer."

He didn't respond, but lunged instead at the wall behind me, attempting to drive his fist into it. He had given up trying to conceal it, unleashing his pain at full force.

I had felt his body move and preempted his strike, so I swiveled my body round making his fists hit the air instead of the rough surface.

Joe continued to punch the air for a couple more seconds, flailing wildly at some unseen force around us, while I held him down, feeling almost like if I let him go, I would lose him too.

Tired of it, he finally slumped against me, his head falling on my shoulder and his arms wrapping around me.

"Please tell me this isn't real, Frank." He whispered so softly I wouldn't have heard him if he hadn't been on my shoulder. "This can't be happening, right? We can't lose them like this."

I felt warm tears soak through my t-shirt and my blurred vision cleared, trailing down my cheeks in sync with the rain.

"Please…no. Please please please."

I still wasn't saying anything, but I felt my body move on its own, moving my hand to stroke the back of his head.

I felt so hollow inside. It hurt so much, but it was so numb at the same time.

"We have to go out there and check." Joe paused to sniffle and started pushing himself away from me. "We have to go and search for them too, they could still be out there, Frank. We have to find them. We have to-"

"Shhh." I pulled him back against me. "Stop."

I didn't allow myself to say more than a word. I didn't trust myself with more.

"We have to go see!" Joe began to struggle in my grasp. "Frank, I have to see for myself! Let me go!"

"Not now, Joe."

"But they are out there! Mom and Dad are out there! They are waiting for us to find them! Frank! We have to-" A sob wrenched itself out of his mouth, interrupting him and punching through the last few strings keeping my heart together.

"Would you stop being so reckless all the time?! The roads are unstable! We can't go out there! You heard them!" I held his shoulders in a death grip and looked him in the eyes, letting everything I felt pour through my eyes. "I can't lose you too, alright?!...Not now…"

My brother's gaze mirrored mine. "But Mom and Dad are out there..."

I wanted to scream and cry and break something and do absolutely nothing all at the same time.

Disclaimer: I don't own the HB

Like i said earlier, this is just a sample.

But I'm curious if you guys like it enough for me to continue it, since its kinda depressing. haha.

Let me know what you think!

And thank you for always reading and reviewing when you can. It means so much to me :). Both good and helpful.